Politics. Sex. Science. Art. You know, the good stuff.

Stephanie Zvan is an analyst by trade, but she's paid not to talk about it. She is also the associate president of Minnesota Atheists and one of the hosts for their radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions.

Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird.

Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

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EVENTS

Nobel Conference: Frances Moore Lappé

“Getting a Grip—Gaining Clarity, Creativity, and Courage for the World We Really Want”

Frances Moore Lappé, author and co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts

The final lecture of the conference was delivered at the banquet. It was delivered, not by a scientist, but by an activist and writer who has spent decades understanding how various parts of the world make food work. As before, below is my summary of the lecture. Only a small amount of note-taking was delivered in tweets before my battery died, so I’m faking much of it below. The full lecture is available on YouTube.

“It is far too late and things are far too bad for pessimism.” [Thanks to geofisch for finding the source: Dee Hock, founder of Visa International (re: Y2K)] We cannot afford despair.

We don’t each actively choose a world in which starvation and climate change happen. Our feeling of powerlessness is our enemy.

We have solutions for most of the world’s food problems or they’re within our reach very soon.

The problem right now is confirmation bias: What we see, we believe.

If there are already cheaters, why not cheat? Current narratives are scarcity, lack, competition, selfishness.

Ironic but worth knowing that Monopoly was developed by a Quaker as an object lesson.

We have a privately held government. Skewed wealth negates even broad agreement when it comes to legislation.

Alienation leads to depression, which is the leading U.S. cause of disability. 50% more suicides than homicides.

Shock has the power to induce cognitive dissonance and clarity. One such moment led to the microcredit movement.

“There are no ‘parts’ in an ecological worldview. There are only participants.”

If we stop looking through a lens of lack, we can instead examine the conditions that promote pro- and antisocial behavior.

Cooperation stimulates some of the same parts of the brain as chocolate.

Humans have a need to “make a dent” in their worlds. Leads to less depression and feeling more in control.